In 1967 portions of Badfish Creek failed to meet water quality standards so in 1971 Rock County and the Rock Valley Metro Council financed a study of the creek which concluded that better water treatment was needed. In 1972 the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) issued a contract for expanding the Nine Springs Treatment Plant. In 1974 MMSD proposed the establishment of a Facilities Planning Advisory Committee to guide the conduct of a Facilities Planning Study. Since the Nine Springs Plant's wastewater flowed into Rock County, the proposal recommended including representatives from Rock County, thus Holman as director of the county's Environmental Health Division, plus a representative of the Rock Valley Metro Council sat on the Committee.
The Facilities Planning Advisory Committee's charge was to formulate a wastewater discharge effluent strategy, which included the design of a facility. Most of the records in this series document the work of this committee; particularly that of Holman. Types of records include minutes, surveys, data, correspondence and memos, press releases, transcripts of public hearings, interim and final reports. Subjects include wastewater treatment and disposal, water pollution, environmental impact, and public health.
According to current (as of 2011) Environmental Health Director, Tim Banwell, the resulting final reports were a milestone at the national level as one of the first uses of how computer models were interpreted and applied.
